A billionaire just launched a company to sell hotel reservations in space — and outdo NASA with a 'monster' space station

On Tuesday, hotel billionaire Robert Bigelow announced
the launch of Bigelow Space Operations.

The new company will operate inflatable space stations
called B330s, which are being developed by Bigelow Aerospace (a
space hardware company).

The first two B330 modules are slated for launch in
2021.

BSO is also working with the International Space
Station to carry its payloads.

Bigelow hopes to build an inflatable space station more
than twice as big as the ISS.

Robert Bigelow, who made his billions from the hotel chain Budget
Suites of America, has officially launched a new spaceflight
company called Bigelow Space Operations (BSO).

Bigelow, age 72, founded Bigelow Aerospace in 1999. That company
develops space hardware and built
an inflatable room, called the Bigelow Expandable Activity
Module, which NASA attached to the International Space Station in
2016.

But the hotel mogul has grand ambitions to use BSO to
commercialize space - and outdo NASA with a "monster" space
station.

In 2021, BSO plans to launch two
55-foot-long inflatable modules, called B330-1 and B330-2,
that link together to form a private space station. The new
company wants to sell time aboard to countries in need of orbital
laboratory space, as well as multi-million-dollar reservations to
tourists seeking the trip (and hotel stay) of a lifetime.

"These single structures that house humans on a permanent basis
will be the largest, most complex structures ever known as
stations for human use in space," the company said in a press
release.

Bigelow Aerospace will maintain its role developing and making
space hardware. Meanwhile, BSO will market its services in
low-Earth orbit - a zone about 250 miles above Earth - to
nations, corporations, and space tourists.

"From a human-use perspective, we're at the very, very early
beginnings of this," Bigelow told reporters during a call on
Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the
cost of access to space is getting cheaper with the advent of
new rocket systems. Lead among them is SpaceX's
Falcon Heavy, which is now the most powerful operational
launcher in the world following its successful test. (The price
of a launch on that system undercuts the competition four-fold.)

Bigelow's B330 space station modules can hold about six people.
They would launch in a folded-up state, then be inflated with
breathable air once deployed into orbit. Their thick white
shields, made of impact-absorbing materials, would protect
against space debris and radiation.

The units are "so diverse and so large," Bigelow's release said,
"that they can accommodate virtually unlimited use almost
anywhere." Depending on the prices that SpaceX and other
companies charge for flights, the per-passenger cost could be in
the "low seven figures" though most likely in the "low eight
figures," Bigelow said. (NASA currently pays Russia
about $81 million per round-trip to the ISS for its
astronauts.)

Bigelow currently has a handful of people staffing BSO, but he
expects to hire three to four dozen more this year. By the time
the company is ready to send payloads to the ISS, he expects it
to have as many as 500 employees working around the globe.

If the B330s prove successful, Bigelow wants to launch something
even bigger, with just one rocket: A space station more than 2.4
times the volume of the entire ISS, which took decades to build.

"We call it the Olympus," Bigelow said. "It will weigh about
75-80 metric tonnes on launch. It will be a monster spacecraft by
any current standards, and we hope that's something we can be
seriously working on over the course of about eight to 10 years."

Reading a fledgling market

caption

The International Space Station.

source

NASA

Construction of the ISS began in 1998 and is still underway, but
the orbital laboratory is supposed to be de-orbited in 2028,
after reaching its maximum safe lifespan.

Thus, BSO hopes to attract the same nations that fund the space
station today and get them to invest in its newer, privately
operated outfit.

The B330s wouldn't have as many restrictions as the ISS, which
designates most of its payload capacity to supplies and science
experiments. With BSO's space station, corporations and nations
could try something more adventurous or zany in orbit.

"As badly as we'd like to open up a Budweiser [distillery] on
orbit, I think that's going to have to be deferred to a
private-sector-operated station," Bigelow said.

Bigelow is bullish about the potential of the B330s and his new
company, but he also expressed concern that demand for his
private space station may be weak or nonexistent after the
spacecraft are launched.

"There's a real lack of quality data that are telling us, 'here's
what you really have globally in terms of a market.' Everybody's
been talking about commercial this, commercialize that, and so
on. Talk is easy," he said.

What's much more difficult, Bigelow said, is getting "people to
fork over their money." To that end, BSO is spending millions to
conduct an exhaustive survey by the end of 2018.

"BSO's research this year, I think, is foundational for everyone
- for NASA, for our government, for even other competitors to
Bigelow, to understand what the hell does a commercial market
really look like, on a global basis, once and for all?" he said.
"We're going to be spending millions of dollars to try and get to
that answer."

Brewing uncertainty in low-Earth orbit

caption

China's space program is developing at a phenomenal pace.

source

AP

Bigelow said he foresees two major problems for his plans to
establish private space hotels and laboratories:
China and NASA.

China is a threat because many of the 17 partners behind the
$150-billion International Space Station are being
"systematically courted" to invest in a new orbital laboratory
that China may launch as soon as 2022.

"They're offering very attractive terms and conditions and
features that the commercial sector is going to have a horrible
time trying to compete with," Bigelow said.

NASA is an issue because, under President Donald Trump's
direction, the agency plans to pull out of the ISS in 2025, then
invest roughly $3 to $4 billion per year in a deep-space gateway
to help astronauts
get to the moon and Mars.

"It's going to be a political episode," Bigelow said. "It needs
to have a solution that needs to be worked on now in conjunction
with the commercial space station players. This is a very serious
problem."

caption

An artist's concept of NASA's Deep Space Gateway (left) space station near the moon.

The
core issue is that NASA has helped fund a nascent industry of
private space companies, including SpaceX and Bigelow. It also
provided a semi-permanent destination in orbit for the companies
to work with: the ISS.

If NASA abandons the ISS for deep-space missions without figuring
out new roles for the companies it has invested in, many could be
left in the lurch.

"I get an uneasy feeling that there is not a plan, there is not
something in place, to actually embrace all of the partners and
say, 'we have a future for you,'" Bigelow said. "There needs to
be an alternative to them that's attractive, and that needs to be
a discussion that is administered by the White House in
conjunction with NASA and in conjunction with companies like
ourselves."

If there isn't a plan, and BSO's research finds a stagnant
market, Bigelow said he may keep the B330s on Earth indefinitely.

"We would pause, after developing two or three 330s, and they
would be sitting on the ground, waiting for deployment if, in
fact, the business simply wasn't there," Bigelow said, adding,
"that would kind of be the worst-case scenario."